‘Santa Crossed Delhi Today’

Washington: An online Santa Claus tracker run by a Canadian and American defense agency mapped the jolly old gift-giver’s path around the globe on Saturday. The tracker showed Father Christmas crossed New Delhi today. Every Christmas Eve since 1955, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) has been tracking Saint Nicholas’s annual voyage to deliver presents to good little boys and girls around the world.

A 3-D, interactive website at www.noradsanta.org shows places Santa has passed through, allowing site users to click to learn more about different locations.

It shows Santa, wearing his traditional red cap and suit trimmed with white fur, steering a red sleigh over the Earth below, which has been labeled to show what country he is flying over at any given time.

In a video shared by the website’s twitter handle, Santa can be seen encircling Taj Mahal in Agra:

Santa’s progress — as well as the activities of NORAD volunteers — could also be charted at the Twitter handle @NoradSanta. The Santa crossed New Delhi today. The website’s twitter handle had earlier tweeted: “Our volunteers are having a great time and staying busy with as many as 140,000 phone calls today!” read one tweet, accompanied by a photo of dozens of people, some wearing red Santa hats, taking calls.

After leaving the North Pole early Saturday, Santa had early stops in Russia, China and Japan before heading at mind-boggling speed south toward the Philippines, Guam, Australia and then heading east toward Asia and Europe before stops later Saturday in North America.

NORAD’s Santa tracking tradition dates back to 1955, when a Colorado newspaper advertisement printed a phone number to connect children with the cheerful Christmas icon that mistakenly directed them to NORAD’s hotline.

To avoid disappointing the little ones, NORAD’s director of operations at the time, Colonel Harry Shoup, ordered his staff to check the radar to see where Santa might be and update the children on his location.

When not spreading holiday cheer, the North American Aerospace Defense Command conducts aerospace and maritime control and warning operations. The website is available in eight languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Chinese.